


Paint Me A Chloe Price

by rasmith121



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Sad with a Sad Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-09
Updated: 2017-12-09
Packaged: 2019-02-12 10:48:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12957597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rasmith121/pseuds/rasmith121
Summary: Max chose the Bay. Now she tries to work through her regret with a song.





	Paint Me A Chloe Price

_The five stages of grief are bullshit,_ Max realized. _They're all out of order._

It was a month after Chloe's funeral. She was sitting on the floor at Blackwell, her back against her bed. Behind her the photo wall remained, a monument to a time when things were simple and all she ha to worry about was which one had the best shot at winning the Everyday Heroes contest. But in front of her was a newer project. It was smaller and she had only taken a few of the photos, the rest she had gotten off Chloe's laptop and printed. They were not arranged in any particular order. There was Chloe on the hood of a junkyard car, pistol aimed up at the sky. Her sitting on a bench, framed by the setting sun. Sitting in Principle Well's chair. But the next was Chloe in the woods, smiling and surrounded by green. Then a selfie in her room looking super sad. Her with a bong full of smoke.

Max looked up past the collage on the floor, her gaze landing on her guitar. About a week ago she had heard a song that she had not remembered in a long time. It was country, which was not really her style, but it was slow and was written for acoustic and as the words worked their way through her again she had found a whole new meaning in them. It took her two nights and she probably should have spent at least one of them studying for a history quiz, but she had learned the notes and rewrote the words to make it just for Chloe.

She stood and picked up the guitar, carefully so she did not step on her photos, then sat back down on the floor against the bed with it in her lap. She strummed once to listen for an out-of-tune string. Then, not for the first time, she played Chloe's song.

 

"I was standing there, a picture in hand

Watching the waves dance upon the sand

With every glance I remembered a climb

Up to a lighthouse just needing a bit more time

I asked the picture, ‘How could you make me choose?

If only you had known what I’d lose’

 

Can you photograph a heartbeat?

Breath it to life and make it complete?

A peaceful life on the open road

Never once doing what we’re told

Put her there on a junkyard hood

Mischievous smile up to no good

We wouldn't have a care in the world

If I could just picture Chloe

 

I thought of all the things that we missed

The songs I’d never sung her and the way she kissed

I wish I could fall through that picture once more

She’d be beside me looking out upon the shore

Although in life she’d never back down on a dare

The picture of that blue-haired girl just gave a sad stare

 

Can you photograph a heartbeat?

Breath it to life and make it complete?

A peaceful life on the open road

Never once doing what we’re told

She’d be there in the driver’s seat

Tank top and jeans, oh so bittersweet

She would be mine, nothing could compete

If I could just bring her back to me"

 

Max set the guitar down and wiped her eyes. When she could see again she reached for the picture of Chloe sitting on the bench beneath the lighthouse, lit by the sun. Not for the first time, she tried to bring it into focus. She tried to make it become more clear and vivid than a picture could be, to fall through it and be in that moment again. To bring Chloe back even if the whole world had to break to do it.

The only change was when a tear splattered across the image. No matter how hard she tried, her powers were long gone. Not for the first time, she cast the picture away, pulled her knees up to her head, and sobbed.

**Author's Note:**

> I finished Ep 5 about a month ago. Since then I've been stuck on these characters. Thanks to Venividivigor's "the autumn bedroom of tangled sheets" and TomorrowHeart's "Ourboros" for getting me through the PTLiSD. Personally I'm Bae > Bay, but I don't think Max is as selfish as I am. I think she would chose the Greater Good. And I think she would regret it every day.
> 
> Anyway, I was at work, and it was slow, and for no reason at all I remembered the song 'Paint Me A Birmingham" from when I was like eleven. I thought, 'This sounds like something Max would sing about Chloe' and then I cried and now you're crying too and I'm sorry.


End file.
